Teri Karush Rogers

For a New Yorker, asking whether someone rents or owns is pretty standard conversational fare, at least whenever the topic turns to real estate.  But apparently we're a little out of touch with the rest of the country.

In a city of 8 million people, there are at least ten times that many real estate stories.  BrickUnderground wants yours.

A dispute between a major Brooklyn landlord and 73 locked-out union workers took a filthy turn today when Local 32BJ released this 48-second video showing open sewage pits and other unsanitary working conditions in basement areas below the 59-building Flatbush Gardens complex.

It doesn’t look great, that’s for sure.  But, ahem, how sanitary is your basement?  If you have a trash compactor, it may be worse than you think.

Whether you consider holiday tipping a form of blackmail, a legitimate annual rite like any workplace bonus, or something in between, you have probably wondered what you get in return.

Depending on the size of your tip and the length of the recipient's memory, payback can range from a friendlier and/or more helpful attitude for a couple of months to a longer-term disposition toward special favors—bent workrules, drycleaning that regularly finds its way upstairs to you, or a wave upstairs to the plumber who shows up to install your new "television."

It’s hard enough finding a decent apartment to rent in NYC, and, as the NY Times correctly pointed out the other day, even harder to get approved if you fail to meet the minimum income requirements of the city’s notoriously demanding landlords.    What the Times didn’t mention is that for the last couple of years, a company called Insurent Lease Guaranty has offered an option to many renters who earn l